Anyone interested in an undiscovered business to business E-commerce company. Apparently Hewlett Packard is. The ViaLink Co.----IQIQ.
Company Press Release
The viaLink Company Announces Agreement with Hewlett-Packard
EDMOND, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 1999--The viaLink Company (Nasdaq:IQIQ - news) announced today that Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP - news) would provide viaLink with ''mission critical'' hosting, co-marketing, and consulting support for its Item Catalog Service.
As a part of the arrangement, HP would provide the technological platform to power the service. HP also would provide viaLink $6 million in financing through a secured, high-yield subordinated debenture. This debenture will be convertible, after 18 months and under certain conditions, into viaLink common stock.
The Memorandum of Understanding calls for these transactions to close before March 18, 1999. The closing of these transactions is subject to completion of mutually agreeable documentation and other customary conditions.
''We are very pleased to announce this relationship with HP,'' said Lewis B. Kilbourne, chief executive officer of The viaLink Company. ''HP's commitment to host and support the viaLink Item Catalog Service should help us to quickly and efficiently achieve our goal of simplifying the supply chain management process, particularly within the consumer packaged goods industry.
''HP provides world-wide, reliable, redundant outsourcing services that will be critical to our customers to permit vendor management of the supply chain process,'' Kilbourne added.
''The viaLink Item Catalog and its premium offerings have the potential to become the industry utility for trading partners within the grocery and convenience store distribution channels,'' commented Craig White, HP's vice-president and general manager of the financing and complements business unit. ''We also believe that utilities like viaLink could be an important part of the evolution for business to business electronic commerce.''
Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and Intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 124,000 employees and had a revenue of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year.
The viaLink Company is an electronic commerce company and is a recognized leader in providing business solutions through technology to the retail industry. The viaLink Company's services combine electronic commerce and leading-edge Internet-based applications to provide consumer product manufacturers, distributors and retailers the capability of doing business with each other electronically.
This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forwarding-looking statements are (1) the failure of the company's viaLink service to achieve market acceptance; (2) the extent of the company's anticipated operating losses; (3) the inability of the company to obtain additional financing; (4) market acceptance of the Internet as a viable platform for commerce; (5) intense marketplace competition; (6) the possible obsolescence of the company's viaLink service; (7) the company's inability to protect its proprietary technology, as well as other factors detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
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Contact:
viaLink Company
Lewis B. Kilbourne, 405/936-2500
or
Hewlett-Packard Company
Craig White, 650/919-8011
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